Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Public Policy

May 06, 2013

Is Belief in the Second Coming of Christ Bad for Creation?

Do you believe that Jesus will return to Earth someday? Then you probably don’t care about environmental devastation and the catastrophic loss of life of future generations. That’s the absurd conclusion drawn in an academic paper published in the latest issue of Political Research Quarterly. Continue Reading...
May 03, 2013

Retirement and the End of Work

“Retirement as a cultural concept needs to go away.” So says Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry in a thought-provoking piece today over at Forbes. I agree with the sentiment, in large part because good work never ends. Continue Reading...
April 30, 2013

Are Free Markets and Fracking Producing Cleaner Energy?

A new report by the Environmental Protection Agency finds that one of our cheapest sources of energy may be cleaner than we had previously thought: The Environmental Protection Agency has dramatically lowered its estimate of how much of a potent heat-trapping gas leaks during natural gas production, in a shift with major implications for a debate that has divided environmentalists: Does the recent boom in fracking help or hurt the fight against climate change? Continue Reading...
April 29, 2013

Farm Loans and the ‘Floodgates to Fraud’

“Anytime you are going to throw money up in the air,” says Abraham Carpenter Jr., a farmer in Grady, Arkansas, “you are going to have people acting crazy.” Although “throwing money up in the air” is increasingly one of the main functions of the federal government, Mr. Continue Reading...
April 26, 2013

Is Higher Education a Sinking Ship?

A recent CNBC article by Mark Koba notes the bleak outlook for 2013 college grads looking for work: A survey released last week from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) reported that businesses plan to hire only 2.1 percent more college graduates from the class of 2013 than they did from the class of 2012. Continue Reading...
April 26, 2013

Buying Our Way Out of Crime Will Not Work

Americans continue to be fed the false narrative that poverty causes crime rates to rise. While it is true that not having material needs met makes people vulnerable to do things like steal—even the Bible teaches that (Proverbs 30:8-9)—the ongoing reduction of morality and materiality is doing nothing but setting the stage for the failure of well-intended programs because we are missing core moral issues. Continue Reading...
April 24, 2013

Why Christians Should Care About Government Waste

If I grill a Porterhouse steak for dinner, eat half and then throw away the other half, I’m being wasteful but not necessarily immoral. But if I grill a steak and then, instead of eating it, throw it all in the garbage disposal, my wastefulness is morally problematic. Continue Reading...